"THE PRESIDENT HAS ARMS!"

To this list add two more circumstances, both communicated to me by AtE readers, and both throwing further doubt on the ozone legend, though they are not conclusive refutations.

Mr. Walter E. Chase, Ph. D. (Physics), of Nashua, N.H., points out the existence of a sodium layer in the upper atmosphere 90--100 km above the earth, which physicists have been illuminating with laser beams (see, e.g., Physics Today, Feb. 1992, pp.17-21). Dr. Chase's question is: where does the sodium come from? The calculations he sent me show that it could easily come from salt (sea spray) broken up by sunlight.

According to orthodox opinion, the sodium is of extraterrestrial origin, i.,e., meteor debris. But according to my old friend, Brockhaus ABC der Astronomie (Leipzig 1960), there are essentially two types of meteorites, "iron meteorites" with average composition 91% iron, 8% nickel 0.6% cobalt, and only traces of other elements; and "stony meteorites" with 42% oxygen, 20.6% silicon, 15.8% magnesium, 15.6% iron, and no element in the remainder (about 6%) exceeding 2%. This has been found by chemical analysis of meteorites on the terrestrial surface and is unlikely to have changed since 1960. No sodium mentioned anywhere (true, its trace amounts could still accumulate).

But if Dr. Chase's hypothesis is correct, where is the chlorine? If it is there, and it probably is, you can't "see" it. The sodium could be detected, even before the advent of lasers, by its absorption spectrum in sunlight (characteristic lines for each element in its optical spectrum). That is because sodium, like all elements of the first period, has only one electron in its outer shell which it takes little energy to excite. The corresponding "low" frequency (from Planck's relation E = hv ) falls into the visible part of the spectrum. In contrast chlorine has 7 outer electrons, and its absorption lines lic at higher frequencies, in the UV range, which is blocked by the ozone layer and therefore they are not detectable on the earth. Which is no proof that the chlorine is absent.

Reminds me of the four-year old son of a friend of mine who at some celebration saw President Novotny of Czechoslovakia in the flesh and exclaimed, "Look mommy! The president has arms!" He had hitherto seen only his portrait in every public building from day-care center to cinema, and portraits don't show arms. With a child's logic, not altogether flawed, he had concluded that the president has none, much as the ozone Maharishis conclude there is no abundant chlorine in the upper atmosphere.

The most obvious explanation is that Dr. Chase's hypothesis is correct. The sodium in the upper atmosphere comes from salt water, but there are no significant amounts of sodium or potassium of extraterrestrial origin there.

And the earth, let me tell you, has quite a bit more sea water than CFCs in air conditioners, refrigerators and deodorant spray.